eggnog cheesecake

so the other night i had a festivus party in honor of the holiday made popular by Seinfeld… it was fun! i decided to bake, so i made an eggnog cheesecake (made it a rectangle for easier serving to lots of people).

i don’t usually post recipes, but i had a friend request the recipe and for baking, recipes are a little more essential… so it’s a first, here’s the recipe.

(makes one 9×13 pan…)

ingredients:

– 5 packages cream cheese

– 3 cups eggnog

– 1/2 cup sugar

– 1 tsp vanilla

– 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon and nutmeg)

– 4 eggs

– 1 box gingersnaps

– 1/4 stick butter

directions:

first, start the crust. i crushed up almost an entire box of gingersnaps by hand.. it was a pain, use a food processor or blender if you can. get it to a nice crumby consistency (some larger chunks are ok). then melt the butter and mix it in. you may need to add a little more butter– you want the crumbs to be fairly well buttered. get a greased pan and press the crumb mixture in the bottom and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.

meanwhile, soften cream cheese by leaving at room temperature for a while, or microwaving on low power. use an electric mixer on medium-low heat to whip the cream cheese. add sugar and mix until well blended. add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low until well combined between each egg. then mix in eggnog, vanilla, and spices. pour over the crust.

place the pan inside a larger pan and put in the oven. fill the larger, outer pan with hot water about 1/2 or 3/4 of the way up the side of the inner pan. be careful not to spill into the cheesecake!

i baked it for about 50 minutes… you want the sides to be spongy and solid and the middle to be slightly jiggly but not liquid. if you press your finger on the outside, it should bounce back and feel spongy but the middle shoudln’t be totally set. pull it out of the oven and let it cool for a while inside the water bath. then continue cooling on a rack, and once it’s no longer hot, put it in the refrigerator to set.

i decorated mine with some icing and gingersnaps. it was a huge hit… really rich and delicious!

welcome to foodtuitive!

you won't find step by step recipes or lists here. instead, i focus on an intuitive, flexible, impromptu style of cooking. i describe roughly what i did to make each dish in order to inspire you to do the same with different ingredients in your own kitchen! i hope you enjoy the narrative and i hope it makes you want to experiment with your own foodtuition!